Where the Photos Are

Here's a new toy that appeals both to my avocation and to my occupation. A new google/flickr mash-up called loc.aliz.us offers a way to present photos in a map format, based on latitude and longitude tags.

This photo of the fountain in the Circle in Georgetown, for example, was taken at latitude 38.690032 and longitude -75.385909.

I've been working through some of my photos and adding location tags. I'll try to keep that up.

Filed in:

• flickr
• photos
• map
• google
• mash-up

Tenth Golf Game of 2006

I played 18 holes at Old Landing Golf Course Sunday morning with Andy Southmayd and Sandy Schenck. It was a cool morning, cloudy, with a slight breeze. Rather a pleasant round, with good pace of play ahead of us, and no one piling up behind.

It was fun to put together my "home" golf buddy and my "work" golf buddy. We've all played together before, and I think this grouping works well. Sandy and Andy are closer to each other in skill. Both are helpful golf teachers as I struggle along.

I think both Andy and Sandy broke 100. I don't recall Sandy's final score, but Andy's 91 was, he says, a personal best. My 105 may have been mine. I thought I had a shot at breaking 100 when we made the turn, but I blew up on several holes on the back 9.

We drove our round. I must admit that Cart 20 gave me some worries. I noticed as we pulled away from the first tee that it had a tendency to slide around; the steering was loose and slushy.

I took a closer look and found that the left front wheel appears to be out of alignment. It made the driving fun and adventurous.

It was a good round. We had fun. There were some great shots and some amusing miss-hits. I had a par or two and at least one shot at a birdie (lipped-out).

I was particularly pleased with how I finished. After flubbing and flailing along on 16 and 17, I hit a solid drive off the 18th tee, and a decent second shot to lay-up to the water on the par-5. I cleared the wide water to put my third just over the green. Unfortunately, I put that third shot into a green-side bunker.

I hate sand. It took me two to get out and two putts to get in the hole. Ah well.

Filed in:

• golf
• 2006

Grumble, Grumble, Grumble.... A Book Meme

Annavenger says I gotta....

1. One book that changed your life: The Tin Drum. I've been thinking about this book again, perhaps because the author, Gunter Grass, has been in the news recently. I read this in high school, after my writing teacher suggested it. It opened up a new world of literature for me; bringing me to international writing and to writing that breaks the rules of reality.

2. One book that you've read more than once: A Soldier of the Great War. This is a wonderful book by Mark Helprin. I'’ve mentioned it here before. It follows a young Italian man through World War I. There are several books by Helprin that are worth owning and returning to.

3. One book you'd want on a desert island: Any one of the Foxfire Books. These are folk-craft how-to books. They apply more to being lost in the Appalachian Mountains, but seem worth a try.

4. One book that made you laugh: Right Ho, Jeeves. Or almost anything by PG Wodehouse.

5. One book that made you cry: The Diary of a Young Girl, by Anne Frank. Maybe not when I first read it, as a young teen, but in retrospect.

6. One book that you wish had been written: Why I Stayed with Baseball and Gave Politics a Pass, by George W. Bush.

7. One book that you wish had never been written: I don't think there are any. I'’ve seen others answer this with Mein Kampf or the Qu'Ran. That just seems silly. Without Mein Kampf, how would we be able to study the madness that caused Hitler to do what he did? And to think that a holy book of any specific culture is at fault for a conflict we may have with that culture is jingoistically foolish.

8. One book you'’re currently reading: The Far Side of the World. I'’m still making my way through the Aubrey/Maturin series. Again.

9. One book you'’ve been meaning to read: Blue Shoes and Happiness, by Alexander McCall Smith. This was a Father's Day gift from Karen, but it keeps slipping to the bottom of my reading pile.

10. Tag five others. Well. Who to lay this on next? How about Del, Amanda, Paul, Howard and Fritz.

Filed in:

• book
• meme
• reading

In a County Park

I took a walk/jog in a local park this noon. I needed some exercise, but didn't feel like a ramble on the treadmill at the YMCA. So I headed over to Brecknock Park, a Kent County Park just south of Dover.

I was able to work up a sweat, grab a few photos, and head back to the one shower in the first floor men's room at our office.

Brecknock Park includes a woodland trail that runs along Isaac Branch past the park, along the edges of a few subdivisions, past a high school and an elementary school.

There's plenty of pocket greenspace flora and fauna to see. Early in my wanderings, I startled a small snake on the path. It was too fast for me to get the camera up, let alone on, and snap a picture. It was nice to see it, though.

I took a lunchtime walk here back in November of last year. I made a small photo set from that walk, and another from today's.

Filed in:

• KentCounty
• Park
• Exercise

Curbside Recycling!

Yup. We now can recycle from the comfort of our own home. For a small fee, the Delaware Solid Waste Authority will stop by every week and collect our recyclables.

We just started with the program this week. This, after years of hauling our bottles, cans, bags, newspapers, and stuff out to the DSWA "igloos" next to the Lewes Wastewater Treatment Plant every Saturday morning.

I am pleased, though we didn't offer a great deal of stuff for pick-up. I guess that's probably a good sign.

Filed in:

• Delaware
• recycling
• DSWA

Look! Up in the Sky!

It seems some folks were little shook-up in San Diego last week when, just after the announcement of the arrests for an alleged terrorist plot in London, a skywriter flew what appeared to be the word "BOO!" above that California City.

Only it wasn't "BOO!" It was "3001," the name of a company that provides aerial photography services.

According to an item in a column today by Diane Bell, in the Union-Tribune, the folks at 3001 were advertising themselves to the 12,000 (or more) GIS professionals in town for the annual, week-long ESRI GIS Conference.

The ESRI conference is a major event in the GIS calendar. I had heard that the crowd was up to 15,000 this year. Maybe it just seemed that way.

I've attended this event few times in the past; it is huge. The notion of a skywriter overhead doesn't surprise me in the least. My friend Matt was there this year. He remembers the skywriter. He says that no one at the ESRI event that evening, their annual Thursday night, outdoor, themed party, thought it was anything other than 3001's ad.

That, my friends, is what you call "specialty advertising."

I owe a debt to Adena Schutzberg at All Points Blog for a pointer to this item, by the way. Also, I have a few alternate titles for this post to consider: "The Plane! The Plane!" or "Surrender, Jack Dangermond! Surrender!"

Filed in:

• Boo
• oops
• skywriting
• fear

I Keep Wanting to Post Blog Entries With The Title "Irony!"

There's a Delaware Voice column in today's News Journal (New civic group will keep watch for public) about a new civic group set up to advocate for a more open government here in Delaware.

I don't disagree with the goals of the Delaware Coalition For Open Government. After all, a major part of my role as a state employee is to make information available to the public.

But the new group's acronym, DCFOG, just seems to pierce the haze a bit too sharply.

Filed in:

• irony
• government

We Have A House Guest

We noticed this week that a bird has been building a nest in one of the hanging plant baskets on our porch.

This basket hangs just outside a large window on the small, triangular deck between our "new room" and the garage. The plant in the basket had pretty white flowers when I bought it. They have faded since then, but with an avian home in the basket I don't feel that I can replace it.

It looks rather like an enclosed sort of nest. I can't tell if there are any eggs in there. And, as far as I can tell, there is only one bird.

The bird is small, with a long, thin beak. It often stands perched on the wrought-iron-like metal hanger that juts out from the house; or on the edge of the garage roof, across the deck; or up on the peak of our roof. It stands there and squawks. I’m not sure if it is singing, trying to attract a mate, or yelling curses at us for disturbing its nest by looking too closely.

This bird is driving Mocha, our younger cat, crazy. She takes up watch on the bench that sits inside the house under this window and stares intently out at the bird. If we open the window, she scrambles up the screen to the level of the nest.

Poor Mocha, she is convinced that she must eat this bird. I understand; that is her job. But I don't think we can alow that.

I wonder if this is the same bird that used to sit on a large bush just outside of the bay window in the living room. It would sit there, not two feet away from the cat, but separated by a screen and glass, singing away to taunt the cat.

I don’t know birds, so I can’t tell what sort this is. Is there such a thing as a sadist-bird?

Filed in:

• bird
• nest
• cat
• house

A New Blog From The News Journal

There is another new blog on the News Journal web site. Dialogue Delaware says it will present "inklings and oddments on the Delaware Way."

It looks to me like a collection of minor "reporter's notebook" items. I wonder who the author is. Is it set up to allow any of the paper's reporters to post?

I'd like to see attribution on these posts.

Filed in:

• Delaware
• blog
• NewsJournal

Molly Knows How to Avoid Heat Waves

I've just noticed that my old friend and fellow Lewes resident Molly Murray has joined the blogging ranks at the News Journal.

Molly is headed to Alaska on a journalism fellowship and plans to write about her travels in a new bog, North to Alaska, as well as (I assume) in the News Journal.

I first met Molly when I was making the switch from DJ/announcer to radio news guy back in the late 1980s. I got to know her while we were both covering Sussex County Council. She represented true journalism for me, and set an example for me to try to live up to.

Molly is a nice person. I'm happy she gets a chance to go to Alaska and learn new things. I'm also very jealous.

Update (8/11/06, 6:47 a.m.): There are details on Molly's Alaskan plans in this morning's News Journal. She's headed for Alaska today and will spend a bit more than a week up north, posting to her blog each day.

Filed in:

• NewsJournal
• blog
• Alaska